Folding Techniques for Designers by Paul Jackson – a book review and a special giveaway

Pleat enthusiasts, hobbyists, architects, designers, design students and teachers, rejoice! If you’ve been searching for a great reference on the basics of folding, paper artist and professional folder Paul Jackson recently released his book titled Folding Techniques for Designer: From Sheet to Form. In conjunction with Laurence King Publishing, Pleat Farm will be giving away copies to two lucky winners. Sneak a peek at the book, and check out the giveaway instructions.

This is not your typical instructional book on origami models. Rather, it is a concept book on folding. Simply titled Folding Techniques for Designer: From Sheet to Form, the book is a culmination of Paul Jackson’s years of teaching folding concepts at his ‘Sheet to Form’ workshops to university-level students of fashion, textiles, ceramics, graphic design, architecture, packaging, and many more. Key techniques are presented starting with the basics of dividing the paper and the subsequent chapters describing the folding fundamentals of pleating, crumpling and box making.

As the book progresses, each chapter delves further into a folding topic in greater detail. In the case chapter on ‘Basic Pleats’, Paul dissected the topic and classified them into ‘Accordion’, ‘Knife’, ‘Box’ and ‘Incremental’ pleats, with each sub-category clearly illustrated through step-by-step drawing sequence, gridded crease pattern diagrams and photographs.

One of the chapters called ‘Spans and Parabolas’ is a take on folds which result in structural forms resembling architectural roof spans as shown below.

Another fascinating chapter challenges the origami technique by simply forming a piece of paper with no crease or just one crease by inducing a curvature on the sheet. The result is simplicity.

The book is accompanied by a CD containing all the crease pattern drawings.

Here are the instructional videos based on the book:

About the author:
Paul Jackson has been a professional paper folder and paper artist since 1982 and is the author of 30 books on paper arts and crafts. He has taught the techniques of folding on more than 150 university-level design courses in the UK, Germany, Belgium, the US, Canada and Israel. These include courses in Architecture, Graphic Design, Fashion Design, Textile Design, Jewellery, Product Design, Packaging, Ceramics, Industrial Design, Fine Art, Basic Design and Interior Design. He has also taught many workshops in museums, arts centers and festivals and has worked as a folding consultant for companies such as Nike and Siemens.

A video clip from Between the Fold documentary:

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2 Ways to Win: Enter Twice to Increase Your Odds

You can enter by joining the Pleat Farm Facebook Fan Page or by following Pleat Farm on Twitter. Please read the details below. Feel free to use both methods of entry, giving you 2 entries into the giveaway and increasing your odds of winning.
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Enter by “Liking” our Facebook Page:

First, leave a message in the Comments section of this post.

Next, “Like” the Pleat Farm Facebook Fan Page & leave the following message ”hey @pleatfarm count me in for the giveaway http://tinyurl.com/pleatgiveaway #pf01”
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Enter by Following P|F on Twitter

1. Follow P|F on twitter @pleatfarm

2. Tweet the following message “hey @pleatfarm count me in for the giveaway”
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Selecting the Winner

On Wednesday June 29th, 2011 TWO names will be randomly selected from all the entries to win the book prizes. The winners will be announced on the Pleat Farm Facebook Fan Page as well as through Twitter.
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If you don’t want to wait that long,

Folding Techniques for Designer is available for purchase here.

Tagged as: Books, Folding, Paper, pleats